


A Bright Forever

by LogicalParafox



Series: STRQ Immortality [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Fusion, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27613913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LogicalParafox/pseuds/LogicalParafox
Summary: Short vignettes in the AU where team STRQ have manifested immortality in the style of The Old Guard and work to make things right from the shadows.
Relationships: Raven Branwen/Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long
Series: STRQ Immortality [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2005294
Kudos: 5





	A Bright Forever

“If you’d just wear black and red like the rest of us you wouldn’t have to spend so much time scrubbing, you know.”

Tai shot Raven an irritated look from where he was doing his best on blood stains on his favorite pair of khakis.

“You’d look better too.”

Tai huffed and turned back to scrubbing. “Summer’s wearing WHITE and I don’t see you getting on her case.”

“Summer has better aim.”

Tai muttered under his breath and scrubbed viciously; the froth tinged faintly red.

* * *

Qrow came and went. They all did these days. Summer, for now, stuck with at least one of them as she adjusted to the new rhythms of the world and learned their new safe houses and contacts. A lot could change in five years.

Tai suspected that Qrow still did underground Grimm fighting when he could manage it, but at least he tracked at least one of them down before getting drunk these days.

Take tonight, for example. They took care not to carry scrolls overly much as carrying around a tracker seemed the height of foolishness if your goal was to be untraceable, but they kept some anonymous message board accounts with a wide series of codes. Tai had checked them and found a message waiting from Qrow’s account that, decoded, gave him a date and a place. It was a continent away, naturally, but Tai hadn’t had anything in particular going on and had stowed away on a flight, finding Qrow within a few hours on landing since he knew the marks to look for.

Qrow grinned, looking up from where he had been sitting on the hotel bed. “Finally,” he said, reaching down and lifting a bottle of clear liquid and popping off the lid. “Join me for a drink?”

“…If we die of this, my wives are going to kill me.”

“Be truthful, Tai, they’ll kill us both.”

“Ok, but they’ll kill me twice as much.”

Qrow didn’t bother to argue with that truth and simply took a long drink, wincing a bit at the burn as he offered the bottle to Tai. “Might as well earn it unless you’d rather just watch me have all the fun.”

Tai shook his head in amusement but drank, almost spilling the bottle as the burn felt like it took the roof off of his mouth and stripped his throat of its protective cells all the way down. “Brothers, Qrow, what is this?” he wheezed.

“I’ve been trying my hand at a bit of chemistry,” Qrow said dreamily, swiping the bottle back from Tai and taking a long drink before clumsily capping it again and lying back on the bed with a contented sigh. “I don’t miss a lot of things about mortality but drinking… It used to be so much easier.”

“And more dangerous,” Tai pointed out, moving unsteadily to the bed and flopping down as well. “Why here?”

“Why not here? Room under a false name, security systems bypassed, a fine establishment with guards and frequent government clients so it’s assumed to be above reproach. Who would look for us here?”

“The dead aren’t usually in luxury suites.”

“Barely any of the living are either.”

Tai snickered and put his hands to his warm cheeks. “I haven’t felt like this in… years…”

“Did you miss it too?”

“Not like you, I don’t think, but I have other… distractions.”

Qrow groaned. “If you’re going to tell me about your sex life with MY SISTER I’m pushing you out the window.”

“But then you’d have to find a new hotel.”

“Worth it.”

“I wasn’t going to, I’m not like that.”

“Anymore.”

“…Anymore.”

* * *

“Who are you?” the young Faunus bellowed, holding his slashed side, and staggering back away from the two cloaked figures that followed him, one white, one black.

Adam Taurus had been so certain of his coup, of his rightful place at the head of the White Fang, and now he was cut off from his subordinates and cornered by two unknowns.

Adam roared defiance and rushed at the black cloak, bringing his blade up to block the downward strike of a similar sword, the metal sparking as they locked together. The cloaked form was shorter than him, slightly, but their strength seemed evenly matched. IMPOSSIBLE.

The white cloaked figure darted in from the side and Adam was forced to break away from the standoff, blocking rapid strikes from a heavy mace, his shoulders beginning to ache from absorbing the blows.

Adam’s fear mounted as he looked around wildly for an escape route, backed up against sheer cliffsides higher than he could clear before his opponents fired a shot. “What do you want?”

“Balance,” said the shorter, white-cloaked figure.

“The White Fang is balance and you are fighting its rightful leader,” he declared, squaring his shoulders.

“You’re believing your own propaganda, Taurus. Even you know that’s bullshit,” the harsher-voiced, black-cloaked figure said.

“No! The White Fang fights for equality!”

“The White Fang does, but you fight only for your own power. The fate of your people means less to you than your own revenge,” the white cloak said.

Adam snarled and whirled, launching himself upward and scrabbling at the sheer rockface for grips, desperately hamming his blade into a fissure for leverage. He gained distance, the top of the cliff almost within reach. If he hadn’t been so tensed, waiting for the inevitable bullet ripping through his back, he would have laughed with relief as his groping fingers found a grip on level ground. Maybe he would survive the night and live to take his rightful throne another day.

Adam reached the top, sheathing his somewhat dulled sword and turning to glance down one last time, morbidly curious as to why neither of his assailants had taken the shot.

The cloaked shapes stood in the clearing. One white, one black, the shadow-filled hoods tipped back to watch him.

Adam felt a chill go down his spine at the intensity of that unseen regard. What on Remnant could they be waiting for?

“Aren’t you the lucky one,” a husky voice drawled behind him.

Adam whirled, staring in shock at the taller gray cloaked figure standing before him on the empty clifftop. “Where did you come from?” Adam demanded.

“Hell,” the gray-cloaked figure announced. “Where you are going.”

Adam shuddered, drawing his blade and sinking into a fighting crouch. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a fourth voice drifted up from below. “Zero out of ten Qr….. Gray! And you call me cheesy!”

The gray-cloak sighed. “Bad timing, Banana.”

“Hey!”

Adam snarled. “What the hell are you?”

“Us?” the gray cloak asked, revealing a large weapon that snapped out into a massive scythe. “We’re the last people you’ll ever meet.”

Adam charged, blade flashing, and slumped to the ground, minus a head.

Qrow clicked his tongue and walked to the edge of the cliff, glaring down at the three figures. “Thanks a lot, Tai, you wrecked my whole thing.”

Tai pushed back his yellow hood, grinning. He didn’t run my way but I wanted to contribute SOMETHING.”

“Who would run your way? Anyone could tell he’d try and scale the cliff, not bolt for the river you numbskull.”

“You’re just jealous my cloak is prettier.”

“You useless banana.”

“Sun! I’m a sun dragon!! I am fire! And VENGEANCE!”

“You’re full of potassium and pratfalls.”

Raven pushed back her black hood and grimaced at Tai. “You don’t get to pick your color next time. What kind of camouflage is that?”

“The rest of you got cloaks that match your clothes!” he protested.

“The rest of us aren’t colorblind,” Summer added. 

“Summer!” Tai gasped with theatrical shock. “You too?? How cruel!”

“Summer, can I burn all of his cargo shorts now? Please?” Qrow called from atop the cliff.

Summer looked from Tai’s puppy dog eyes to Raven’s smirk and Qrow’s wide grin. “You may burn one of his cargo shorts and he doesn’t get to pick his cloak color next time.”

Tai groaned and Qrow laughed. Raven grinned and leaned in to kiss Summer. “As wise as you are beautiful.”

“Do we take this back to our client?” Qrow asked, lifting the fallen Faunus’ blade.

“No, we bury it with him. Let history think him a coward who ran rather than a martyr,” Raven said.

“We should keep the sword. And the mask,” Summer pointed out. “You never know when you need bait to lure out followers in hiding.”

The rest of her team nodded, the three of them scaling the cliff to assist Qrow in disposing of the body of the would-be assassin. The White Fang might be slightly misguided, but Adam Taurus would have allied himself with the darkest forces for even the slightest hint of power, and that was not to be borne.

* * *

“I think we could use a vacation,” Tai announced as they decompressed in a safehouse after their latest mission to wipe out a pool planted by Salem and the growing horde of Grimm emerging from it before it could overrun the nearest settlements.

Raven, sitting near the roaring fire to dry her damp hair looked up at him. “This isn’t a vacation?” she asked, smirking.

“If it involves more than one… more than five deaths, it’s not a vacation,” he decreed.

Qrow looked up from where he was sprawled on one of the couches near the fire, raising an eyebrow. “So… six deaths and we’re suddenly on the job again?”

“Does it count as a job if no one is paying you?” Raven asked.

“Yes,” Summer interjected from where she was putting a batch of cookies into the small oven.

“Do you mean our deaths or any deaths?” Qrow demanded.

“Any and all deaths that happen near or because of us,” Tai said firmly.

Raven sighed. “How is that a vacation if we don’t get to have any fun?”

Tai looked up at the ceiling as though praying for patience. “We relax. We enjoy the scenery. We play tourists.”

“We do all of that all of the time,” Qrow pointed out.

“Scouting locations for future missions is not relaxing.”

“You’re not scouting right then,” Qrow said smugly.

Summer emerged and kissed Tai before looking at the twins severely. “I like this idea so no more of your teasing. Tai means well, even if he is an idiot.”

“Hey!”

Summer smiled and patted his cheek, smudging him with flour. “I think a vacation could be very nice. Get some sun. See a part of the world we don’t usually visit.”

Qrow brightened. “Somewhere remote, where we could be out in the open.”

Raven sighed happily and stretched out on the rug, soaking in the warmth. “Somewhere with a teahouse.”

Qrow snorted. “So not somewhere that remote if they have that much civilization.”

“I prefer not having to pump our own water,” Summer pointed out and Qrow nodded thoughtfully.

“Maybe somewhere with beautiful hikes!!” Tai enthused.

“Get exercise on your own time,” Qrow complained. “I want someplace with a distillery.”

Summer snorted. Qrow, since you’re so good at scouting, you’re in charge of bringing us potential locations. Actually, you and Raven can each assemble a list and we will vote as a group from there.”

Tai sighed in a long-suffering way.

Summer smiled and went to check on her cookies. “I’ll find us some missions in mountainous regions you can scout and hike, I promise.”

Tai grinned. “I love you.”

Summer smiled back. “I know.”


End file.
